ESPN Announces TV Schedule For US World Cup Coverage

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Yesterday, ESPN released the full match schedule for their exhaustive of all 64 World Cup matches in the US.

Of the 64 games, 11 will appear on ABC, 10 on ESPN2, and the remaining 43 matches will appear on ESPN’s main channel.

ABC, the only non-cable entity broadcasting the World Cup in the United States, will show games on the weekends, with only two exceptions: The Holland – Chile match on the second Monday of the tournament, and the World Cup Final itself. ESPN2 is mostly being used to show one of the two games that happen simultaneously on the final match-day of group play. All the USA’s games, including its second match against Portugal on a Sunday, will feature on ESPN.

ESPN’s lead commentator for this World Cup will be the immensely popular Ian Darke, who has risen to a cult-hero status in US Soccer circles over the last four years, first for his calls in the 2010 World Cup and 2011 Women’s World Cup, and then for his commentary on the Premier League for ESPN.

Darke will be paired with analyst Taylor Twellman for all games involving the US. For other matches, he’ll be paired with a different analyst. The rest of ESPN’s announcing team is not hammered down, but their studio team has been announced: Analysts Twellman, Steve McMannaman (who will co-commentate select matches), Santiago Solari, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Gilberto Silva, Alexi Lalas, and Michael Ballack will provide coverage from ESPN’s broadcast center just outside Rio. Hosts for the network will include Bob Ley and Josh Elliott.

In addition to comprehensive match coverage that will include all the iconic World Cup pre-match rituals, ESPN has exhaustive coverage lined up throughout the tournament with pre and post match shows, World Cup Tonight, ESPN FC World Cup Encore, and segments of SportsCenter and other ESPN shows live from Brazil.

Enjoy this coverage while you can. In 2018 and 2022, not only will we have to watch tournaments at horrible times in places like Russia and Qatar (in the winter, if they don’t manage to lose the tournament altogether), FOX will have the broadcasting rights, and their soccer coverage can’t hold a candle to ESPN’s.

But for this summer at least, the perfect World Cup is a possibility very much on the horizon.